Project to engage farmers in biofuel industry

A $130,000 grant from The Biofuels Center of North Carolina is providing seed money aimed at developing the clean energy industry in Western North Carolina. The Field to Fryer to Fuel project, led by AdvantageWest, will pilot a new business model for the production of biodiesel from locally grown feed stocks. The goal is to reduce the region’s dependence on imported fuels. The project has also received $64,000 in federal economic development funds.

For the pilot program, 60 acres of canola have been planted at Biltmore Estate — one of several project partners — that will be pressed into food-grade oil for area restaurants. The used fryer oil will then be converted to biofuel for motor vehicles and home heating.

Reading Room

So, Scout (Jean Louise) comes back home to Maycomb — where “everyone is either kin or almost kin”— at age 26 and after being “away” and living in New York City for several years. Sixteen years have gone by since we last heard from her in the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Maycomb she comes home to isn’t the same Maycomb we know from the 1960 novel.

This Must Be the Place

For the better part of the last decade, my life during the summer was music festivals. From Maine to California, Michigan to Arkansas, I was there, in an endless crowd, cheering on the greatest musicians of our time. In those innumerable moments, I felt more alive, at home, and at peace, than anywhere else in the world.